LESS HEARD OF BLENDED WHISKIES FROM DIAGEO AND OTHERS

RARE BLENDS FOUND IN REMOTE COUNTRIES

THE BENMORE BLENDED SCOTCH WHISKY

BENMORE PROFILE

Benmore has been a reasonably successful blend, the sales of which are now focussed on the Philippines and Thailand. It was created by Benmore Distilleries Company, the one-time owner of four distilleries including Dallas Dhu, whose malts were used as the base of the Benmore blend.

In 2011, Diageo, created a special Benmore Four Casks blend for Thai and Philippine whisky drinkers. It is aged in a combination of ex-Bourbon, Sherry, charred and refill casks, and filled into a smart embossed bottle featuring a stag. Its palate offers dried fruits, plenty of sweet vanilla and a faint whiff of smoke.

BENMORE HISTORY

Benmore was ‘the first of three new distilleries in Campbeltown,’ wrote Alfred Barnard after his great whisky tour in the 1880s. It was built in 1868 by the big Glasgow blender, Bulloch Lade, which went bankrupt in 1920. The distillery then became part of Benmore Distilleries Company Ltd, also from Glasgow, and operated until 1927 when it closed for good.

The company also bought Lochindaal in Port Charlotte on Islay in 1920 and a year later added Dallas Dhu on Speyside. Presumably the Benmore blend was created around this time and included malts from all three distilleries, though only Dallas Dhu was ever mentioned on the label.

By 1929 the Benmore Distilleries Co. and its eponymous blend had been absorbed into the Distillers Company, the forerunner of Diageo. In 1983, Dallas Dhu was closed for good by DCL and sold to Historic Scotland.

ABBOT'S CHOICE BLENDED SCOTCH WHISKY

In the 1960s ceramic monks filled with Scotch sold as far afield as Peru. Today Abbot’s Choice lives on as an occasional oddity in whisky auctions.

ABBOT'S CHOICE PROFILE

Over the years Scotch whisky has been bottled in everything from miniature golf bags to models of Nessie and Big Ben, so why not use a ceramic monk and employ his head as a stopper? Every time you felt like a dram you could decapitate the poor fellow and then put him back together again. Such was the thinking of John McEwan & Co Ltd of Elgin and Leith.

The blend may have contained Linkwood, which was licenced to John McEwan & Co by the DCL in the mid-20th century.

ABBOT'S CHOICE HISTORY

According to the yellow, parchment-style labels of Abbot’s Choice, John McEwan & Co was established in Leith in 1863. The firm owned other blended whiskies including King George IV and Chequers, all of which have since been inherited by Diageo.

The brand was originally called ‘McEwan’s Whisky – the Abbot’s Choice,’ and dates from some time before World War II. Among its European markets was Italy where it was imported by the Brescia-based firm of Samaroli, while it was also exported to Latin America. In 1937 DCL acquired John McEwan & Co and licensed its recently-acquired Linkwood distillery to the company.

A set of ceramic monks are part of the massive collection at Edinburgh’s Scotch Whisky Experience amassed by the Brazilian businessman, Claive Vidiz. The ‘Abbot’s Choice’ trademark was registered in the USA in 1953, and lapsed in 1995. John McEwan & Co was eventually dissolved in 2010.

BULLOCH LADE BLENDED SCOTCH WHISKY

A popular 20th century blend named after one of the great Glasgow whisky firms – Bulloch Lade.

BULLOCH LADE PROFILE

‘BL Gold Label – a whisky of fine character for the occasions of old-fashioned friendly hospitality’ declares an advert in Punch from 1923, beneath a cartoon of a salmon fisherman pouring himself a large dram while his gillie looks on eagerly.

Bulloch Lade & Co, once a key force in the industry and owner of distilleries including Caol Ila and Loch Katrine, went bust after the First World War. But

its name lived on for decades through its BL Gold Label blend that was sold from New York to Italy, where it was still popular in the 1970s.

The Royal Warrant bestowed upon Bulloch Lade by King George VI was continued by Queen Elizabeth II and attached to BL Gold Label during the 1950s.

BULLOCH LADE HISTORY

Founded in 1830, Bulloch Lade & Co. had become a major whisky blender and distillery owner by the end of the century, when it was a serious rival to the Distillers Company Ltd. (DCL). However the lean years that followed the downturn in the Scotch industry at the start of the 20th century proved too much and the firm went into voluntary liquidation in 1920.

It’s likely that the BL Gold Label blend was created before then, though this is unclear. What is known is that the firm was bought by a consortium of whisky producers including DCL, which then acquired it outright in 1927.

Bulloch Lade & Co continued to operate as a subsidiary of the DCL, with the BL blends attributed to the blender. In 2007, Bulloch Lade & Co was finally dissolved.

Chequers BLENDED SCOTCH WHISKY

A sister brand to Abbot’s Choice, Chequers was an off & on deluxe blend from John McEwan & Co.

CHEQUERS PROFILE

British Prime Ministers have been escaping to their 16th century country retreat of Chequers since 1917, though whether this inspired John McEwan’s blend is unknown.

The Leith-based blender was best known for his Abbot’s Choice brand, while Chequers evolved into a deluxe 12-year-old whisky that described itself as ‘an especially harmonious blend of 100% choice Scotch whiskies’. Before then, Chequers was launched as a standard blend in the US with a series of lavish adverts in Life magazine in the late 1960s. No doubt Chequers came to feature Linkwood as one of its constituent malts, the Speyside distillery being licensed to John McEwan & Co Ltd when it became part of the DCL. Today the trademark is owned by Diageo.

CHEQUERS HISTORY

Life magazine adverts invariably featured images of Linkwood, though it was not mentioned by name. It was simply referred to as ‘our distillery by Elgin in Morayshire,’ with John McEwan & Co Ltd given as ‘proprietors of the Chequers brand’. In truth this old whisky firm, which was founded in 1863 in Leith, had been part of the Distillers Company (DCL) since 1937, five years after DCL acquired Linkwood.

Since the 1960s Chequers has been labelled ‘The Superb’, ‘Superb De Luxe’ and ‘Mas de 12 años’ – a hint as to its core Latin markets. The no-age-statement Chequers de Luxe’ may still be available in Venzuela. In 2010, John McEwan & Co was dissolved.

Linkwood DISTILLERY

Linkwood Distillery-Way Up North

Linkwood is another of the light Speyside camp. The new make has the aroma of a spring meadow – mixing cut grass, apple and peach blossom.

SPEYSIDE SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY

When mature, however, although Linkwood's freshness is retained the palate reveals a thick texture which slows the whisky down in the mouth. It is this combination of texture and delicacy which makes it prized by blenders – and much loved by malt whisky aficionados. The fragrance is achieved by creating very clear wort, having a very long fermentation and distilling (slowly to maximise copper conversation) in pairs of stills in which the spirit is larger than the wash, allowing even more copper contact.

LINKWOOD HISTORY

Located on the outskirts of Elgin (though now within its ever-growing suburbs) Linkwood was established in 1821, but only started production in 1824. Owner Peter Brown was the factor [manager] of the Linkwood Estate and wisely kept his nose clean until the 1823 Excise Act was on the stature book. In 1897, Linkwood Glenlivet Distillery Company was created to control the distillery’s operation.

It was completely rebuilt in 1874 by his son William and existed as an independent distiller, run by an Elgin-based whisky broker, until 1932 when it joined the DCL stable. It has remained in production ever since, with regular upgrades taking place, most significantly in 1972 when a new distillery was built opposite the old buildings. 

Both plants ran until 1985 when the original ceased production, although it was still used as an experimental site – it was here that a lot of Diageo’s research into copper, reflux and the effect of worm tubs took place. In the late 1990s it was on the shortlist to become the Speyside representative in The Classic Malts range.

In 2012, the old building was demolished as part of yet another upgrade. This time six new washbacks were installed in a new distillery along with two new stills. Capacity is now in excess of 5.5m litres per annum.

Linkwood is bottled as a 12-year-old in Diageo’s Flora & Fauna range, and for many years quasi-official bottlings have come from Gordon & MacPhail of Elgin – often from ex-Sherry casks. Other independent bottlings appear fairly regularly.

OTHER RARE TO FIND SCOTCH WHISKIES

Port Ellen 39 Year Old Untold Stories: The Spirit Safe

70cl 50.9% ABV

Description
Distilled in 1978 at the iconic Port Ellen distillery on Islay, this limited edition has been produced from the original distillery's last remaining stocks. Set to re-open in 2021, Port Ellen was almost lost to history when it closed in 1983.

This expression has been aged for 39 years in a combination of American oak ex-bourbon casks and refill European sherry casks. Limited to just 1,500 individually numbered bottles, Port Ellen 39 Year Old Untold Stories: The Spirit Safe is presented in a stunning case complete with two sets of keys, in homage to the real spirit safe at the distillery.

Product details

Distillery/Brand                                    Port Ellen

Classification                                        Scotch Whisky

Region                                                 Islay

Style                                                   Single Malt

Benromach 1981

70cl 54.2% ABV

Description

Distilled at Benromach in Forres in May 1981, this expression survived the distillery's mothballing in 1983 to be bottled by new owners Gordon & MacPhail in August 2006. The firm had decided that Benromach should make an older style of Speyside malt – one with a little touch of smoke, medium in body and fruity – with the new equipment they had installed. Despite the stills being smaller, Gordon & MacPhail’s new make bore a striking resemblance to that made under DCL’s stewardship. Quite how this happened is one of the mysteries surrounding Scotch and goes some way to adding to the belief that there is something about a distillery’s own microclimate which influences the character of the spirit.

This 25-year-old Speyside single malt has been matured in refill sherry butts and is presented at a natural cask strength of 54.2% ABV free from chill filtration and artificial colouring.

Product details

Distillery/Brand                                   Benromach

Classification                                       Scotch Whisky

Region                                                  Speyside

Style                                                     Single Malt

Ben Nevis 1996 Authors' Series Leo Tolstoy

70cl 55.5% ABV

Description

Introducing a stunning 19 year old Ben Nevis from the limited edition Authors' Series featuring products selected from rare single casks. This single malt whisky is limited to 255 bottles and has been bottled at a cask strength of 55.5% volume. Bottled in 2015 from a sherry butt.

Leo Tolstoy was born into the Russian Aristocracy in 1828, and is regarded as the father of realist fiction. After achieving initial notoriety with his transparently honest, semi-autobiographical novels recounting the Crimean War, he later found fame with his world renowned epics War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Also a keen playwright and philosophical essayist, Tolstoy was a trailblazer of non-violent resistance, with his moral views later influencing the likes of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.

Tasting Notes

Nose - A lovely fresh bouquet lots of fruit, apricot, peaches and cream some sponge cake and fresh almonds. Typical Ben Nevis character is unleashed with a bit of water as grassy and herbal notes join in. Taste- rich with grassy and cereal flavours from the outset, becoming earthy and mossy, (more Ben Nevis traits). Citrus fruits and some nutty toffee lead us on to a pleasant okay finish with a touch of pistachio nut salt tang.

Product details

Distillery/Brand                                   Ben Nevis

Classification                                      Scotch Whisky

Region                                               Highland

Style                                                 Single Malt